


All at Sea

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/M, Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:59:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker likes an ordered life. Jess prefers to be spontaneous. A good thing, then, that anomalies are so unpredictable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All at Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clea2011](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/gifts).



> Written for the lovely [](http://clea2011.livejournal.com/profile)[clea2011](http://clea2011.livejournal.com/) for having won [](http://primeval100.livejournal.com/profile)[primeval100](http://primeval100.livejournal.com/)'s 400th challenge! She gave the prompt “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” I don't drink coffee. I don't even like the smell of coffee. This [infographic](http://holykaw.alltop.com/what-your-coffee-says-about-you-infographic) on types of coffee was very helpful in the creation of this fic. As was, of course [The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot](http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html) from where Clea's prompt originates.

**Black**

Becker's morning started out the same way as it always did; shower, shave, hair, uniform, black coffee, hair again. Breakfast was always something hearty and full of protein that set him up for the day, usually involving eggs. Everything in his flat had its place so nothing got in the way of a quick exit if he was called in early. Weekends, weekdays, it never mattered, the routine was the same.

He used to go for a run before work but now he found mornings were better for doing paperwork (his own and, inevitably, other people’s) and he took a longer lunch to fit in time at the gym. Provided he hadn't already spent all morning chasing and being chased by unpronounceables.

**Frappuccino**

Jess' morning started with a cheery song on the radio. Sometimes she'd jump up and dance along with the music like she had when at school, using a hair brush to belt out hits in a pleasant but no way near professional voice. Other days she'd lay in bed for a song or two, letting the lyrics drift into her brain, setting up her mood for the day.

A quick shower was followed by a quick breakfast – a piece of toast or a small bowl of cereal since she knew Lester would have a Danish waiting for her now that they'd started having mini briefings when she got in and before Lester had to face the others.

She always woke up early, but by the time she'd decided on that days outfit and hair, found her keys, unplugged her iPod and phone from their chargers and put the dishes in the dishwasher, she only had time to quickly gulp down her Frappucino (courtesy of the coffee machine last year's Secret Santa bought her - exceeding the agreed limit by quite some margin) and rush out of the door.

Her weekends were lazier affairs, spent lying in bed, browsing online or going out to coffee and lunch with old friends for whom “I work in IT” was enough for them to never ask another question about her job again and who assumed any bruises she sported were self-inflicted shoe-related injuries.

But she loved the fact that she never knew what each morning would bring, even if all it brought that day was awful.

**Macchiato**

Becker's morning pick me up was a macchiato, courtesy of the new coffee machine Lorraine, a notorious coffee fanatic, had somehow managed to slip into the budget. He certainly wasn't complaining, though he did sometimes wonder what he could bribe her with to get a tank through the budget unscathed.

He usually drank it over the Times crossword on slow days, or over reams of badly formatted paperwork on days when Lester's face resembled a storm cloud. When he was trying to make sense of Connor's handwriting – as he added scribbled addendum’s to reports he'd already typed up and printed out – he usually quickly followed up his macchiato with a double espresso. At least Cutter's reports were laced with enough sarcastic footnotes that they brightened up an otherwise onerous task, not that he was ever going to let him know that.

And of course it meant that he was always in the break room when Jess took her mid-morning break. Not that he had in any way adjusted his own schedule so it fitted in with hers. And not that she seemed to notice he was there either. But slow and steady was how all the best races were run, and he was in no rush to change things just yet.

**Cappuccino**

Jess' favourite mid-morning pick me up was a cappuccino from the ARC's fancy new machine. Her morning break was really the only one she took away from the ADD, unless an active operation was in progress. Lunch was always eaten at her desk – Lester, Lorraine, Abby and occasionally Stephen and Connor checked in on her at about 1pm and fetched her a sandwich from the canteen or added her to whatever food run they were making. Lester had even started sharing his own lunch with her and eating it in the Atrium next to her desk, much to the bemusement of everybody else.

She liked going to the break room though. It gave her a proper chance to stretch her legs – usually by mid-afternoon she was standing at her desk, rather than sitting – and it was also a chance for a bit of company and to catch up on gossip. If she had her comms device on and was working with multiple field teams anything that went on behind her that didn't involve a dinosaur incursion went soaring past her head and she missed out on a lot of the good stuff.

And if there was one person in particular that she wanted to see? Well, at least she wasn't being obvious about it. Hopefully. Though she was definitely going to have to up her game, because Becker hardly ever even looked in her direction when she came in. And even though all her best flirty manoeuvres seemed to hit their mark, Becker never reacted in the way she expected. Not that he necessarily had to make the first move, she was perfectly happy to ask the man out herself, but she was usually at least a little certain that they would say yes before she did.

Maybe they were just fated to never be. If he was too busy ogling the centrefold of Guns & Ammo to ask her how her weekend went, it was obviously a sign that she needed to look outside the ARC for a boyfriend.

**Water**

Just once Becker would like to make it through the day without a) dying b) restyling his hair. The call had come in just as he was taking a bite into his sandwich. Jess' voice had come over the intercom, an edge of panic lacing her normal calm tones and it hadn't taken Becker long to see why.

Running out of the break room he found Abby and Connor staring in disbelief at the stream of water running down the corridor.

“Anyone else got a bad feeling about this?” Connor asked.

Becker didn't answer, but motioned for them to stay where they were.

Naturally they were right behind him as he entered the atrium. The first thing he saw was Jess, still sitting at her station, water up to her ankles.

“Jess, get away from the electrical equipment,” he stated, calmer than he felt.

“It's fine,” she shouted back, which is when Becker realised that the rushing in his ears was not a sign of how worried he was, but was emanating from the anomaly that had opened in the corner of the room.

“Fine?!” Becker yelled.

“We've prepared for this,” Connor said. “All the equipment in here's waterproof.”

“Right,” Becker replied. Now that he'd mentioned it, that did seem like something Becker had read in a report. It certainly wouldn't protect Jess from any creature that came through, though.

“Almost done!” Jess shouted, water well above her knees.

“Bloody hell,” Cutter said, edging his way in between Abby and Becker.

“I need to know what kind of creatures we could be dealing with.”

Cutter levelled him with the most incredulous expression in his arsenal. “We have no way of knowing what time this anomaly opens in. There could be any number of...”

“It's not salt water,” Abby said, licking at her fingers. “Doesn't that narrow it down?”

“Not until something comes through...” Cutter trailed off as something large did indeed fall into the room and created a small tidal wave. The four of them standing by the door were pushed backwards into the corridor.

Spluttering and flailing they were all knocked off their feet and went under the water that was now approaching chest height. Swallowing the foul tasting water, despite his best efforts, Becker's only thought was for Jess.

**Water, water, everywhere**

Jess had just finished securing data from the last mission, cold water up to her waist, when she saw a shape out of the corner of her eye fall into the room. All she'd been aware of was that it was huge and had claws before she was propelled backwards, disappearing under the water and hitting the side of her head on the chair.

She tried not to swallow any of the water – god knows what kind of parasites were living in it – but there really wasn't anything she could do, the cold a further shock to her already tense system. She found herself unsure of which way was up, the water around her stained pink and a sharp pain above her eyebrow. She really hoped they weren't dealing with some sort of prehistoric shark or she was bound to be toast.

“Jess! Jess!”

She could hear muffled shouting and managed to get herself upright, lungs almost bursting. She made an effort to wave her hand above the water so the others could pinpoint her location, but then she went under again, spluttering and flailing as the water covered her head.

**Water as far as the eye can see**

“What the hell was that?” Becker demanded.

“I'd need a better look to be sure...”

Before Becker could snap that it wasn’t good enough, Stephen rounded the corner pushing along an inflatable dinghy.

“Best I could do,” he explained.

“It's fine,” Becker replied. “I need to get Jess.”

Another wave of water battered the door towards them and allowed them to get a far clearer look at the creature than they wanted, as claws snapped towards them.

“At least it's too big to get out the door?” Connor suggested.

Becker ignored him in favour of examining the weapons Stephen had brought and which were lying in the bottom of the dinghy.

“I don't think any of these will work.”

“No, me either,” Stephen agreed. He and Becker got into the dinghy.

“What are we dealing with, Professor?”

“[Jaekelopterus”.](http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/j/jaekelopterus.html)

“A what?”

“A little bit giant scorpion, a little bit giant lobster,” Connor explained. “Carnivore.”

“Of course it is,” Becker said. “Let's get these doors open.”

“I hate scorpions,” Stephen muttered to himself, even as he started to paddle towards one.

**And not a drop to drink**

Jess had been heading to the way out but the creature had got there first. Large and deadly looking, she had swum as hard as she could in the opposite direction. She'd hit her elbow on the handrail to the ramp towards Lester's office and clung onto it as another wave hit. She used the handrail and the water's motion to pull herself up to the top floor and relative safety.

She rubbed at her mouth, trying to rid herself of the horrid taste of the water and looked down into the atrium. The creature was still moving about by the door, its pincers making a grab for something she couldn’t see. And still the water was pouring through the anomaly; she didn't know how they were going to cope with the one creature they had, never mind if anything else came through.

Finally the creature moved away from the door and Jess mentally shooed it away towards the anomaly. She was staring at it so intently in fact that she didn't notice the dinghy at first, not until Becker was hissing her name.

“Oh, thank god,” she sighed. She waved at them and then pointed down at the creature, as if there was any chance of them not spotting it.

Becker turned back to talk to Stephen and Jess wished she was close enough to hear what they were saying, especially at the strange hand signals Stephen was making.

Finally Becker turned back with a face like thunder.

“Just stay there,” he called out to her and then ducked his head, no doubt to better ignore her glare.

Before she could call out though she realised they were rowing towards the anomaly.

“Oh, no.”

Her fears were realised as Stephen started hitting the water as Becker rowed them closer to where the water was now merely trickling through. If Jess wasn't already so cold she would have felt a shiver run through her as the creature moved towards the sound.

The creatures speed increased and Jess could barely watch. At what seemed like the last possible minute Becker and Stephen dived in to the water as the creature lurched towards them, its claws missing them by inches as it was propelled back through the anomaly.

“Becker! Stephen!” Jess called out. She rushed to the railing and peered over. Finally she made them out, splashing their way back to the dinghy. Neither of them appeared to be hurt.

“Oh, thank god,” Jess said. She sank down to the ground, not even noticing the water any more. Or that yet another outfit had gone the way of the Dodo.

**Peppermint Tea**

“I leave the office for three hours...” Lester complained.

Jess and Becker, huddled next to an electric heater and wrapped up in blankets, just about managed a nod in his general direction.

“Here, drink this.” He handed over two mugs and they both eagerly put their hands around them.

“What is it?” Jess asked.

“Peppermint tea. I realise it's not the sludge you normally drink at this time of day, but it's supposed to be soothing.”

“I like a change,” Jess said at the same moment as Becker replied with, “I like routine.”

Lester rolled his eyes. “Sort yourselves out. I'm going to contemplate our insurance premiums”.

Jess blew on her tea before she chanced a sip. “What do you think he meant by that?”

Becker shrugged.

Jess took another sip of her tea and decided to try again. “There’s something to be said for taking a risk.”

“Slow and steady wins the race.”

Jess narrowed her eyes. “I'm not some prize to be won.”

“I wasn't...wait, what?”

Jess sighed. “You really are completely hopeless.”

“There's nothing wrong with a measured life,” Becker stubbornly replied.

“I suppose not. If that's what makes you happy.” Jess stood up and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. She looked as if she was about to say something, then stopped and turned away before shaking her head and turning back to Becker. “You really are a complete idiot.”

She pressed her lips to Becker's, a soft kiss with a hint of mint.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” she told him and walked out of the room. Becker, dazed, could do nothing but watch her go.

**Black, Frappuccino, Macchiato, Cappuccino, Espresso, Latte...**

Becker's morning started out the same was as it did every morning; shower, shave, hair, uniform and coffee. Except these days he had to share the shower (no hardship there) and wait to to use the mirror, and found his hair constantly messed up, and drank whatever coffee he could lay his hands on. Or try out whatever coffee related experiment Jess had woken up desperate to try out.

It wasn't the order and routine he'd favoured since childhood, but now he measured his life in kisses, rather than coffee spoons.

He found he'd never been happier. And nor, indeed, had Jess.


End file.
